1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a gate section and base for a safety rail system for providing a protective barrier for blocking access to a hazardous area or for preventing falls from an elevated area.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art safety rail systems required the user to secure components of the systems by some type of securing method, such as by using anchor bolts or by welding pieces together. One similar prior art system to that disclosed herein utilizes cast iron bases and rail sections. That system uses two post receivers on each cast iron base to support only two rail sections. In each post receiver are four cast holes spaced 90 degrees from one another. These holes are used to secure the rail sections to the base with some type of securing pin. In contrast, the base constructed in accordance with the present invention includes four post receivers each having a plurality of slots instead of holes to provide for infinite positioning.
A common prior art system utilizes cast iron bases each of which has toe board receiver slots cast into the perimeter of the base itself, creating protrusions. These protrusions could extend up to six inches from the base surface. In contrast, the safety rail system disclosed herein uses removable toe board adapters. By utilizing the adapter method, it is unnecessary to provide protrusions on the base. Hence, the base of the present invention has no protrusions and, therefore, potential hazards due to protrusions extending upwardly from the base are eliminated. One hazard is a potential tip-over of a forklift driving over the protrusions. Another potential hazard is human injury should someone trip over the protrusions and fall. These protrusions also become a nuisance when toe boards are not in use.
Also, the prior art bases have cutouts creating handle formations for use in carrying the bases, but those handle formations are difficult to grasp and in addition have sharp corners or edges which make gripping uncomfortable. In contrast, the bases of the present invention have recessed handles with continuously curved or radiused edges which are devoid of sharp corners, thus making the handles easily accessible and comfortable to grip.
Further, prior art safety rail systems include gate sections which have only a single latch. Such gate sections lack stability. The present invention provides for a gate section for a safety rail system which includes plural latches for increasing the stability of the gate section.